The Numbed Masses: Don't Stop Believin'

Here starts another entry in my weekly/monthly writing adventure. I was up at 1:15am after finishing some homework and listening to Journey's MySpace page in it's entirety, so I figured why not stay up another hour or so and write some stuff down. And I noticed that you can "import your blog" into Facebook, so I'm gonna try that when I'm done here. Sounds exciting.

So Sunday was the big Game Day. Tough-stuff, hard-core, totally-awesome Steelers went up against the youngin' Cardinals in their first Super Bowl appearance. I was cheering for the Steelers, and have suffered constant attacks from friends and family for it. But I stand corrected, redeemed, and triumphant.

What never ceases to amaze me is just how super the "Super Bowl" is. One of the most popular televised sporting events in the entire world, likely the most popular. Millions and millions watched the game, for both the game and the commercials.

Now I've never been much of a sports fan, but I like to catch the big important games such as the Super Bowl. Plus, I thoroughly enjoy a mindless, vending-machine-smashing, hating-your-job commercial, as well as the never-ending stream of great snacks. So overall it was worth it.

Wait... what did I just say? Did I really mean it when I said the highlight of my weekend was sitting for four plus hours in front of the TV eating my body weight in snacks and drink? Sure, the game was intense and nail-biting, and there were some great commercials, but that's it? You mean, the game's over? Now what? Whadya' mean time to clean up? No, that's not my pile of candy wrappers, I threw my pile away already... twice.

I didn't want to get too deep into this issue, because it's late, and I want to try that blog-importing thingy, and the Journey playlist is almost done. But I wanted to bring this topic up, so I can come back to it later: what kind of a man am I if I spend more time in a day with a sports event, dumb commercials, and fatty snacks as I do playing with my son or spending time with my wife? What kind of a culture do we have that elevates a game and its players to such a high all-consuming level?

I will have come back to this later, because there's a lot more to the issue than this and I'm out of time. And by out of time, I mean that I need to find more Journey songs.


Our politics, our religion, news, athletics, education and commerce have been transformed into congenial adjuncts of show business, largely without protest or even much popular notice.
-Neil Postman